Let's Do It Your Way...

by John Fischer (From Purposedrivenlife.com)

"Lord, there are two ways we can do this, yours and mine. Mine is not working. Let's do it your way."
Someone sent me this quote as part of a pretty spectacular near-death, out-of-body experience that involved a heart attack and quadruple bypass surgery, but I don't believe you have to be facing all that to understand such a statement. In fact, I think this is a pretty good way to think about going through every day of our lives: "Lord, there are two ways we can do this, yours and mine. Mine is not working. Let's do it your way."
That is one of the notable things about Jesus, especially as recorded in the Gospel of John, that he always loved doing the will of his Father. He said that he and his Father were one, and he never did anything that his Father didn't initiate. God and he worked together like hand in glove.

It's not quite so with us. In our finest moments, maybe, when we are relying totally on the Spirit of God, but we have a sin nature to deal with that Jesus didn't have. We're going to pretty much have to be saying this every moment of our lives: "Lord, there are two ways we can do this, yours and mine. Mine is not working. Let's do it your way."

It is comforting to know that Jesus, in spite of his love for doing his Father's will, struggled with it when facing his own bitter end. He struggled so hard that blood was forced out of his body as perspiration. The Bible teaches that the sin of the world was laid on him on the cross, but there is reason to believe some portion of that identity with sin began in the garden the night before his trial when he prayed a prayer that could have just as easily been translated, "Lord, there are two ways we can do this, yours and mine. Mine is not going to work. Let's do it your way."

It's the way we first come to Christ, it's the way we learn to walk in his purposes for our lives, and it's the way Christ purchased our salvation through his death on the cross. In fact, it pretty much sums up the Christian life in a nutshell: "Lord, there are two ways we can do this, yours and mine. Mine is not working. Let's do it your way."

When you do it his way, even the end is doable.
http://www.purposedrivenlife.com/devarchive.aspx?ARCHIVEID=TODAY